Its gratifying to hear U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran voicing support for the Manhattan airport.
What would be more gratifying is if the federal government put the money into a runway project that it originally said it would.
Sen. Moran, who has a home in Manhattan, told The Mercury this past week that he was supportive of our communitys effort to rebuild the runway at a width of 150 feet, the same as the existing runway. The federal government initially told the city government that it would provide money to do that, then double-clutched and said it would only support a 100-foot-wide runway.
This is a major project for our region, because an airport runway is only going to be built about once a generation. The wider runway allows larger planes to land and take off, and we need that width to support not only the commercial service we want but also the planes that serve intermittent events at K-State Athletics.
Plus and this is the key to the issue, in our view the airport has to be able to serve Fort Rileys needs, too. This is why the federal government needs to be supportive, to the largest extent that it can. The Army is a federal operation, after all.
Sen. Moran put it well when he said, This is not a typical airport. MHK has unique features that not only involve frequent travelers in the region, but the movement of troops and equipment from Fort Riley and necessary access for K-State and their athletics programs.
The question is, will the feds adjust their rules to account for the uniqueness of our situation here? Its a lot more cost-effective than scrambling around for some other place to land military airplanes in a time of war. We hope Sen. Moran and our other elected representatives can make that case effectively.
Whats at stake is millions of dollars of local taxpayer money. Truth is, we are going to want the wider runway enough to put local money into it. But its also only fair for the federal government to pony up, too.
